Jigsaws

My mother often quoted “Have one and spoil the child.” She said this because I wanted another sibling. She thought this was intended as exhortation rather than warning. The mother’s instinct to spoil her only child was thereby reinforced by a higher authority. I was so spoiled that on the day my parents unexpectedly came to pick me up from elementary school in the middle of the morning. I was about nine at the time I told the teacher that it was probably because that new game I wanted just came out. In fact it was to go to Norton 's where my grandmother was dying. I was also spoiled because I was always sick. I spent so much time away from elementary school that my school called Social Security to visit our house to see what was going on. What was going on was that I was always ill. When I went into hospital to have my tonsils removed. My parents bought me a big tub of ice cream for myself. I always wanted brothers and sisters but I liked the way that I didn’t have to share my toys with anyone else. It also meant I got more presents on Christmas. This kind of pampering was balanced by the way that my parents had grown up in the depression of the projects. They have spent their lives saving. They have always been able to make more money by saving than by earning. It has never been worth their while to employ anyone to do anything for them. On the one hand, then I was spoiled constantly because I was an only child, because I was a skinny, sickly little boy; on the other, life consisted entirely of saving while spoiling that it became second nature. If I grew up having everything I wanted, that is partly because my desires soon became shaped by the assumption that we could not afford things, that everything was too expensive, that we could do without almost anything. Many times, when I asked my mom if I could have something that had taken my eye in a store, she responded by saying, “You don’t want that.” I wanted to reply, “But I do.” And then, after a while I stopped wanting things. I later found out she did that because I was quick to not want something anymore. If I wanted shorts worn by my favorite basket ball team, Cheyenne, my mother bought cheap blue ones and then stitched the authenticating white stripes down each side. We never used a trolley in the supermarket, only a basket. We always bought the cheapest versions of everything. When I was a bit older about eleven, I think I wanted a Lebron James shirt, my mother explained that it was just “paying for the name.” I did not fly on a plane until I was about twelve it was no fun. On the cloudy beach one day I buried my mom 's feet in the sand. Half an hour later, having forgotten all about this, I plunged my spade into the sand and into her …show more content…
I collected all sorts of cards, Toys, and comics. I loved arranging my things whatever they were putting them into some kind of order. I still love doing this. I spent much of my time doing jigsaws: things that you can do on your own. My mom had a particular way of doing jigsaws. We sorted out the side pieces then filled in the middle. Our approach to jigsaws was rigorous. I remember all them afternoons playing games on my own. I played Monopoly on my own.

A few years of playing by myself, I discovered another activity: reading. I had read book after book after book. I was so use to being bum elf that I thought my whole life would be like that. Well guess what that thought only lasted until I was fourth teen and my mom told me she was pregnant.

This was shocking but also hear warming. Even though I knew is was going to be 15 years old then my new brother or sister I was just happy to have a sibling. I was thinking that I don 't have to be alone anymore and that I will have someone to play with. Them thoughts was me being naive. I was so excited I thought about playing with a newborn know that they can 't even support they own